Constance Glube, Nova Scotia’s first female Supreme Court judge, dies

CONSTANCE GLUBE

Canadian Press file photo

Constance Glube, retired chief justice of Nova Scotia, was invested as an Officer to the Order of Canada by Governor General Michaelle Jean in December 2006. Glube, who died Monday, was the first woman to hold several high-profile roles in the Nova Scotia judiciary.

HALIFAX — Constance Glube, an award-winning lawyer who repeatedly made history as the first woman to hold several high-profile roles in the Nova Scotia judiciary, has died.

She was 84.

An obituary posted online by the Law Courts of Nova Scotia says Glube was called to the bar in 1956 after graduating from Dalhousie University in Halifax and spent 21 years as a lawyer before being appointed to the bench as the first woman on the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

The Ottawa-born Glube made history again in 1982 when she became the court's chief justice and was also appointed chief justice of Nova Scotia and the Court of Appeal in 1998.

During her lifetime, Glube also served as Halifax's city manager — the first woman to hold that position in a Canadian city.

Glube, known as Connie by colleagues and friends, was awarded the Frances Fish Women Lawyers Achievement Award in 1997, which was named after Nova Scotia's first woman lawyer.

The online obituary says Glube, who died Monday, was dedicated "to overcoming the gender, ethnic, and religious barriers of her era."

"As a Jewish woman living in the Canada of the mid-1900s, her story is one of a lifelong commitment to the principle of equal opportunity in her community and in her chosen profession," it reads.

Other achievements include becoming an officer of the Order of Canada in 2006 and having an award created in her name by the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Bar Association. The Constance R. Glube CBA Spirit Award is awarded to those who demonstrate "outstanding effort and contribution to women in law."

Glube retired in December 2004 after 48 years in the legal profession.